DuckDuckGo Exceeds 10 Million Searches Per Day

DuckDuckGo is celebrating the fact that, for the first time ever, the privacy-focused search engine has exceeded more than 10 million searches per day.

According to a recent interview with CNBC, DuckDuckGo’s popularity has grown 600% since new broke about NSA surveillance programs 2 years ago.

In addition, PEW has recently reported on the extent to which Americans are concerned about their privacy. According to survey results, 40% of Americans believe a search engine shouldn’t track the activity of its users.

Despite this substantial growth over recent years, the company says its biggest challenge is making people aware that DuckDuckGo exists. Only a small percentage of people have heard DuckDuckGo, even though it’s a built-in search option in Safari and Firefox.

In an effort to get the word out, DuckDuckGo is running a campaign where it promises to give away ten thousand branded t-shirts to people who encourage others to use its services.

If you can get at least 3 other people to switch to DuckDuckGo as their main search provider, all you have to do is answer a few questions about how you got them to make the switch and you’ll get a code for a free t-shirt. For more information see this page.

In DuckDuckGo’s announcement the company provides tips for how to better protect your privacy while using other major services on the internet, such as email and web browsing.